UCSF is an institution of higher learning where tomorrow’s leaders in the life sciences, health care and health policy receive high-quality education and training. By recruiting the top faculty members, students, residents, and staff nationwide, UCSF — a community of the best and the brightest — sustains its reputation for excellence in education, discovery, and clinical care.

At UCSF, our learners approach health care challenges with critical thinking and a spirit of inquiry. As tomorrow's health and science leaders in training, UCSF students embody our passion for advancing the health of our communities.

Our learners train across the specialties in leading national accredited and non-accredited programs, across the specialties; graduates are enrolled in interdepartmental degree programs in basic and translational sciences, social and population sciences and clinical sciences.

As tomorrow’s physician leaders, UCSF students help improve the health of our patients and communities.

The Bridges Curriculum: Shaping medical students into 21st century physician leaders.

Consistently ranked a top U.S. medical school, the UCSF School of Medicine is renowned for outstanding faculty and learners, pioneering medical curriculum, excellence in graduate medical education, and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Breadcrumb

"Our collective achievements in medical education arise from critical partnerships with remarkable staff, students, faculty, School of Medicine leaders, and community organizations that support the work of our education community."

The purpose of medical education is to improve the health of our communities and to alleviate suffering from illness and disease.

Achieving this goal means that we, as leaders in education, must continuously surveil the environment and adapt our teaching to ensure that physician graduates are fully prepared to address and eliminate the health care challenges of the 21st century. The goal is to educate physician graduates are perfectly prepared to lead, serve, learn and thrive in the world of medicine that will exist when they are ready to enter practice eight to 10 years down the road.

Through the work of our talented faculty, an ethos of continuous improvement and a spirt of inquiry, the School of Medicine’s Bridges Curriculum was designed to amplify the enduring qualities of the very best of San Francisco’s practicing physicians: compassionate, accountable, and expert. In addition, Bridges was created to help physicians master emerging competencies in interprofessional team-based care, measurement and continuous improvement, and continuous learning through inquiry. These new competencies will help our physicians meet the health care needs of our increasingly diverse patients.